The Stars Remained
by Singer of Water
Summary: Five months after Lyra watched her boyfriend launch into space she received the news that the ship has gone missing. Some say it was a pilot error, but unbelieving, she searches for her own answers, ending up in places with people she never would have believed. Shiro/OC
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Her eyes scanned the page over and over again. Try as she might she couldn't even finish one page, let alone the entire chapter, not with Shiro talking up a storm as he went from room to room. With a sigh, she closed the book with a light snap and placed it next to her before adjusting her sitting position to crisscross. She leaned forward, placing her elbows on her knees as she watched him move about the apartment.

He was busy packing and she was doing her best to keep her mind off things. That was what the book was for, but a lot that was. Here he was, talking and talking and talking about the trip. What he would be doing, what he hoped to see, and space and space and space. She was happy for him, putting on a brave face. Today was a day that she had been dreading for months now. It was the day they wouldn't see each other for who knows how long. Months? Years? Just the thought of it made her heart constrict in fear and anxiety.

"Do you have to go?" she finally spoke, standing up from her seat and walking over to him. She wrapped her arms around his waist and buried her face into his back.

"Lyra," he sighed, placing a hand over hers. He smiled lightly when he felt her arms tighten around him. Turning around, he looked down at her giving her a reassuring smile as she stared up at him. "I'm going, you know that."

"I know," she said, rolling her eyes before bringing them back to look at him. "I can't stop you. You've always wanted this. You've always wanted to travel and explore and now's your chance." She paused taking a deep breath before blowing it out in a huff. "It's just I'm going to miss you, Shiro."

"I'm going to miss you too, gorgeous," he said, placing a kiss on the top of her head. He smiled down at her and brushed a strand of her honey colored hair off her forehead. "It's just a quick mission to gather information about the moon and bring back some samples. It's nothing dangerous."

Lyra shifted her gaze to stare at their feet. She knew it was a simple mission, he had said it more than once since he got the assignment, but it still didn't stop her from worrying.

It had been years since Shiro had gone to the Garrison and graduated. Now here he was, an officer and preparing for his first mission out into space, something he had been dreaming about his whole life. She couldn't stop him no matter what she said.

"Well you guys are just collecting ice from what you've told me so that's the least likely thing to be dangerous," she commented lightly, trying her best to lighten the mood, more so for herself than for Shiro. But it did work on him, she got a chuckle out of him.

"Like I said, it's nothing dangerous," he stated, rolling his eyes at his girlfriend.

"I know, I know." She glanced up at him with a smile before returning her gaze back to the ground. Her attempt at cheering them both up worked only for a moment before the tension from earlier returned, her heart clenching in her chest.

The expression on her face didn't go unnoticed by the dark-haired man. "I'll be back before you know it," he said. He lifted her chin, forcing her to meet his eyes as he gave her one last smile before letting her go and starting to pack his bag once more. Zipping up the small duffle bag he glanced over his shoulder with a smirk. "If you're so worried you should have joined the Garrison when I did."

The light colored haired rolled her eyes with a huff. "And have to face my mom hovering over my shoulder and having me follow in her footsteps? I don't think so."

This made Shiro laugh. "She's not that bad, Lyra. She's an excellent medic and she just thought it was something you'd like."

"Sorry," she replied, shaking her head. "I'd rather get the chance to write a story about what happens in the Garrison than experience them. Journalism is much more fun in my opinion. Speaking of, I'll be expecting an interview with the pilot from the Kerberos mission." She grinned up at her boyfriend which resulted in a chuckle from him.

"I think I can arrange that," he said, grabbing the car keys off the counter. "Come on, I have to get going." He slung an arm around her shoulder as he led her out of the apartment. "You'll get to watch the takeoff, you know."

"I think you've told me this before," she laughed, closing the door behind them. "Let's go, pilot."

ooO0Ooo

She stared at him as he walked into the room, pilot suit and all. He had a bright smile on his face as he walked over to her and she couldn't help but smile with him. She could feel the knot in her stomach tightening with each step he took towards her. She was going to miss him. She was going to miss seeing him every day and talking with him. However, she was beyond happy for him. He was finally going into space just as he had always talked about.

Her smile grew bigger.

"You look great, Shiro," she said as soon as he reached her. "The uniform looks good on you. It suits you."

"You think?" he asked, chuckling lightly with a sheepish grin as he rubbed the back of his neck. The grin softened to a lighter smile as he stared down at the woman. "I'm going to miss you, Lyra."

"I'm going to you too, Shiro," she said as she wrapped her arms around him, burying her face in his stomach.

"I'll be back before you know it," he said, kissing her. He grinned down at her. "Wish me luck."

"Good luck, pilot. You'll do great," she said, laughing as she smiled up at him.

"I love you, Hoshi," he said, placing one last kiss on her forehead.

She looked up at him when he pulled away from her. "You're never going to tell me what that means, are you?" she asked, rolling her eyes.

"Maybe I'll tell you when I get back, and we can start planning our wedding," he said with a wink before dropping a kiss to her forehead and he slowly backed away from her, offering her a wave and smile before he exited through a door as a voice over the intercom called for Shiro and the other two explorers to head for the loading dock.

Lyra stood there, frozen and wide eyed as she watched him walk through the door.

She couldn't move.

She couldn't think.

What had he just said? Did she hear him right? Did he just propose?

She blinked. Her heart was pounding. Breath was coming out ragged and she rushed to the wall of floor to ceiling windows that overlooked the launch pad. She wanted to pound on the glass and shout his name, demanding an explanation, for him to repeat himself. But she held her tongue. It was no use.

He said that and now he was leaving her for who knows how long!

Her heart clenched as she waited. Any minute now she'd be watching the spacecraft leave. She didn't know if she could watch anymore, knowing that her fiancé(?) was about to go up into space.

Soon the large room was quickly filled with chatter of excitement as cadets began filing in. Many began shoving their way into the room trying to be front and center to watch the takeoff while senior officers stood to the back to avoid the rowdy teens. Their voices grew louder and louder as they all began talking over each other with their friends. Some were still in their cadet uniforms and others were in casual wear. It was a sea of orange and other colors thrown together.

A woman and a young girl stood a few feet away from Lyra, both at the front with a clear view of the launch pad. The girl practically had her face pressed into the window, a wide smile on her face.

"Do you think Dad and Matt will bring me back a sample?" she asked, looking up at her mom with bright, shining eyes.

The mom could only laugh lightly as she shook her head. "I don't think so, sweetie. They're getting them for the Garrison. You know that."

They must be the family to the other two pilots Lyra guessed. It brought a small smile to her face as she watched the young girl practically bounce with excitement as she stared out the window, ready to watch the launch.

The light-haired woman brought her gaze back to the window, doing her best to drown out the noise all around her. Her smile had fell and she took a deep breath to try and calm her nerves.

 _He'll be back before you know it._ she thought to herself, doing her best to ease her worries.

The sound of engines starting up and the large cloud of smoke coming from the launch pad brought the woman's attention to the ship. Her eyes widened as she watched the engines light up and the rocket ship began to slowly rise off the platform.

She felt her heart clench once again as tears begin to pool in her eyes. Her eyes followed the rocket ship as it rose further and further into the sky, slowly becoming less visible and more of a spec in the blue sky.

 **I've had this idea for a story in my mind since season 1. It slowly developed more and more in my head and after watching season 2 I started writing it only to give up two paragraphs into this chapter. It wasn't until I watched season 3 that I decided to try this again.**

 **Lyra was originally called Elle, but then I heard the name Lyra in a comic I'm reading and thought it sounded better. Being honest here when I say that I didn't realize that her name was the name of a constellation until my friend Looop (fanfiction)/be-a-super-human (tumblr) told me. Didn't want to change it because I thought it was pretty and it resulted in the cute nickname Shiro has for her. The nickname was the idea from the same friend.**

 **I want to also thank my other friend puffandproud (tumblr)/em3kitty (fanfiction) for helping me with this chapter. I was struggling a lot and without your help I wouldn't have finished it. I appreciate your help even though you haven't watched Voltron haha.**

 **Anyway, I hope you guys liked the chapter. I really wanted to post this and I was nervous about doing it. Any feedback is appreciated so I'd love to hear your thoughts :)**


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

She lightly tapped her fingers on the keyboard, staring at the blank document, as she thought over the words in her head. They were forming slowly, but for some reason they couldn't come out onto print. They were at the forefront of her head. They were right there, on the tip of her tongue, but why couldn't she think!

Lyra groaned and placed her head at the edge of her desk. "Why did I choose this topic again?" She lifted her head and glared at the computer screen. "Can't you just write yourself?"

"Now that would be too easy."

The light haired-woman looked up to be meet the grinning face of a red-haired woman. The woman stood well over Lyra's head, bright blue eyes that shone brightly against her pale skin. If she stood up from her desk, Lyra would have barely reached the woman's shoulders. With a smile and a small sigh, Lyra greeted the newcomer.

"Writer's block again?" the woman asked with a strong Scottish accent. She leaned against Lyra's desk and crossed her arms and a raised a brow at her. "It happens to the best of us."

"I know," Lyra groaned, "but I had an idea on this topic and yet I can't figure out how to write the article." She placed her head in her hands and did her best to hold back a scream. She was frustrated as it was obvious to her coworker which only made the redhead chuckle. "Emily, help me."

"You were the one who chose the new exhibit at the museum as your topic," Emily said with her hands in the air. She smiled at Lyra as she lowered them. "The article isn't due until the end of the week before the exhibit opens this Saturday. Why don't you come get lunch with me. It might help you clear your head." She placed her hands on her hips, offering a bright smile as if to encourage her.

Lyra pursed her lips and stared down at her hands where she began to pick at the nail polish that was slowly chipping off. After a moment of silence she looked up. "How about coffee instead? I'm not that hungry."

"Sure, whatever works for you. I just need to get out of here." Emily straightened up and stretched her arms in front of her. "It's gotten a little stuffy in here and I need some fresh air." She looked at her friend up and down with a small nod. "You do too. Come on."

The light-haired woman sighed and stood up from her desk, gathering up her purse and phone after she closed up her laptop. "Did you finish your article?"

"Yeah, just finished twenty minutes ago," Emily said with a shrug of her shoulders. "Honestly it was an easy piece. It was about some symphony that came to town. Good music, just not a lot to say on it other than their information and where to find them next." She tucked a strand of red hair behind her ear then hitched her shoulder bag further up on her shoulder. "It was a little too easy."

"Mm," Lyra hummed, nodding her head as she pushed open the building's doors. "I kind of wish I got that topic at this point."

Emily placed a hand on her friend's shoulders. "You'll figure it out. You always have, even back in high school you figured things out in the end. Don't worry so much."

"Thanks, Em," Lyra said with a small smile. "Maybe a some coffee will help."

"Maybe," the redhead said, glancing around as they pushed past a small crowd crossing the crosswalk. "So how's Shiro enjoying the mission?"

"He's probably beyond excited to be there. He's always dreamed of going in space," she answered with a small laugh and she thought of the glowing face of her boyfriend.

"Kerberos is near Pluto right?" Em asked, looking over at her friend.

"It's one of Pluto's moons," Lyra answered, nodding her head. "I'm kind of glad that they're acknowledging Pluto as a planet again."

"Didn't they just classify it as a planet two years ago?"

"Yeah, that's why they created the mission. They've been preparing for it since then."

"Ah." Emily nodded. "Makes sense. So have you heard from Shiro since he left?"

Lyra smiled lightly, glancing down at the pavement. "I heard from him a couple months ago. The Garrison allows family to video chat the travelers at the control room."

"That's nice, but just family?" The redhead's brow furrowed as she looked at down her friend. "Is it family and friends or just family?"

"Um…" Lyra hesitated, fighting back the smile that was trying to break its way across her face. "Just family. That way there aren't too many people coming and going."

"Then how did you get in?" Emily asked, her brow furrowing even more. Slowly her face softened as her eyes widened. "Ly...is there something you haven't told me?"

Lyra pursed her lips, the smile growing more as she looked up at her friend. With a quick glance to the ground and pink dusting her cheeks she answered. "Shrio may have proposed…"

"What?" Lyra jumped at her friend's shriek. Her eyes were wide as she was stopped and grabbed by her shoulders. Her green eyes met the blue eyes of her friend. "Why haven't you told me until now?" she practically yelled in her face.

"I um wasn't entirely sure he was serious," she admitted. She looked down at her hands and began picking at her nail polish again. It was true. She wasn't sure at first it was an actual proposal. With the way he asked it was rushed and almost as if he was saying it as an afterthought. However, Lyra could already guess that Shiro had something planned for an actual proposal when he got back. That was just who he was. He was a bit of a traditional man and she wouldn't doubt it if he had already asked her parents beforehand. "He said it kind of offhandedly that I was caught off guard."

"What do you mean offhandedly?" the taller woman asked as they continued their way down the street. "How can you propose 'offhandedly'?"

Lyra sighed and ran a hand through her short hair and looked up at the sky for a brief moment. White clouds dotted the bright blue sky here and there. It was a nice day compared to the past two days where it was overcast. "He said it just as he was leaving to the dock. I was telling him how I expected an interview with the pilot of the Kerberos mission and he replied 'I think I can make that happen and then we can start planning our wedding when I get back.' That was it."

Emily stared at her friend for a moment, one eyebrow raised. "Wow, you weren't kidding when you said it was offhandedly. But it's Shiro!" she exclaimed, throwing her hands in the air as if to emphasize the enormity of the situation, which to be fair was pretty enormous. "You two have been dating since late high school. Of course he's being serious! I've literally watched your relationship grow since the day you two met. It was like some sappy soap opera." She sniffed as she turned back to look forward. "It was bound to happen."

The honey-colored haired woman hummed with a small nod. "Yeah…"

"Did you say yes?"

Lyra blinked, turned to her friend and gave her a "are you serious" look. "I didn't exactly have time to answer him. He said it and ran of."

"That's so unlike Shiro," Emily tsked, shaking her head. "But I guess he wanted to ask you before he left." She cursed under her breath and chewed her lip. "Mum owes me ten dollars."

"Wait what?" Lyra exclaimed, blinking up at her friend in confusion.

"Yeah, Mum bet that Peter would propose to me first and I bet that Shiro would propose to you first." She shrugged nonchalantly. "I won." A laugh escaped her when she saw the incredulous look on the shorter woman's face. "Oh come on. You couldn't have possibly thought that Peter would propose before Shiro. It's Peter we're talking about. He's always moving and never sitting still. Hardly has time to stop and just enjoy the moment. Well…" she nodded her head side to side in thought, "he does every now and then, but you get what I'm saying. Shiro has always been the calmer one out of the two, even in high school. They always got in trouble. Mostly Peter really," she mumbled the last part. "Peter always caused the most problems and Shiro always charmed their way out of them. It's how they always worked. Sometimes even now that's how they work. Remember the almost bar fight last month?"

"True…" Lyra trailed off, cringing when she thought back to the bar where Peter almost got into a fight and Shiro had to talk the other guy down before anything really happened. It wasn't a pretty scene and made her worry too much that they'd get kicked out or hurt.

She looked up to the sky once more and tapped her finger to her chin as she thought back to their high school days.

She remembered hearing about Shiro since sophomore year. Everyone always talked about how nice he was or how he was the teacher's pet. Back then she was a lot more shy which is why she never thought she'd ever interact with the golden boy of the school. That is until Emily started dating Peter who introduced them to his best friend: Shiro. Somehow Lyra and Shiro hit it off, moreso as friends at first, but it definitely surprised her when Golden Boy Shiro asked her on a date a year later. Then the Galaxy Garrison showed up at their school to recruit new cadets and of course Shiro was the first in line. It didn't surprise Lyra or any of his friends. He had an obsession with space and they knew he'd find some work in that field. When he transferred there senior year Lyra assumed their relationship would end. She had only ever dated once before Shiro and didn't think a long distance relationship would pan out. Boy was she wrong! Shiro, despite his eagerness to get to space, was willing to keep their relationship going.

Eight years later and here they were…

"It's weird not having him around," Lyra spoke softly after a moment.

Emily nodded her head solemnly. "Yeah, it is. Peter was saying the same thing the other day. He says it's too quiet at the apartment without Shiro there."

"I bet," the honey haired woman said with a giggle. "Peter seems to get bored easily without Shiro around."

"Or anyone in general." The taller one groaned lightly. "He's been bugging me to hang out with him

"Is he really that bored?"

"Yes!" Emily exclaimed as she pushed open the door to the coffee shop. "He's driving me up a wall. That's why I've been hiding at the apartment for the past two days. He's suffocating."

"Wow…" Lyra said with a small giggle. "You two are made for each other."

"Why's that?" the redhead asked, raising a brow with a slight glare.

"Opposites attract I mean," the shorter woman said, putting her wallet away after paying for her coffee. "You are a lot calmer than he is. That's all."

"Well the same can be said about you and Shiro," Emily said, paying the cashier. "Shiro's the most outgoing person we know - aside from Peter - and you're a little more introverted than him."

"I see your point." Lyra rolled her eyes good naturedly when Emily grinned at her. Slowly, Lyra's smile slipped from her face as she lowered her cup, her gaze drifting to the pattern on the table cloth, mentally tracing the twisting and winding lines.

"Hey, Ly, it's okay to miss him. I mean, I know you miss him, but there's missing him, and then there's _missing him_. It's okay to _miss him_."

"I really should be getting back now. As nice as this break was, I need to finish that article." She stood up, pushing her chair back with a loud scrape against the linoleum floor.

"Ly," Emily spoke, looking up at her friend with a worried gaze.

"Thanks for the coffee, Em." Lyra offered her friend a small smile before started to turn to the door.

"Ly, c'mon."

"I'll see you later." She waved her hand and took a step towards the door to the cafe.

Before Lyra could get too far, Emily grabbed her arm and pulled her into a hug, causing them both to spill their hot coffees over each other "You're not getting away from me that easily, sister"

"You really didn't think that through, did you?" Lyra laughed lightly, staring down at the stain on the hem of her shirt.

"Nope," Emily said, giving a grin to her friend, ignoring the hot coffee that was seeping through her own shirt. Her grin slowly deflated to a comforting smile. "I'll see you at the office. I'll probably be leaving early too so I'll keep the apartment door unlocked for you."

"Thanks, Em," Lyra said, returning the smile before she finally started heading for the exit. "I'll see you in a bit."

ooOOoo

A large sigh ran past her lips as the elevator doors opened to her floor. It had been a long day. She was finally able to come up with something to write for her article. However, she only managed to get two sentences out compared to the full story she was hoping to get done. She liked the museum exhibit, it was interesting, which is why it annoyed her to no end that she couldn't figure out what to write. At least it wasn't due until the end of the week.

Lyra sighed again when she turned the corner and saw her and Em's apartment in sight, a relieved smile on her face. All she wanted to do was get rid of her shoes, change into something a lot comfier than the skirt and blouse combo she was wearing, and just forget about the article all together.

Pushing open the door, she placed her keys on the key rack hanging on the wall and began kicking off her shoes. "Em!" she called out, pushing the heels to the side of the hall. "I'm home!"

"Hey!" came the muffled reply from her friend and roommate. Lyra looked over and saw her bedroom door was closed. Most likely she was watching Netflix knowing Emily. "Did you ever get the article started?"

"Yeah!" Lyra shouted in reply. "I was only able to get a couple lines in, nothing more." She internally groaned when she thought about having to sit at her desk again tomorrow and stare at the document with the same struggle as she had today.

"At least it's a start! Again you have until the end of the week when the exhibit opens," Emily responded.

"I know," she replied, softer and more to herself than to her friend.

She closed her eyes and headed to her room. She needed to get her makeup off and change clothes, then she'd be able to relax. Once in her bathroom she grabbed a headband and pushed her short hair back before removing the makeup. With a quick face wash and a change into some pajama pants and a baggy shirt she made her way to the kitchen.

"I'm making tea if you want any," Lyra asked as she filled the kettle with water.

"I'm good!" Emily shouted back.

Lyra nodded as she picked out the tea from the pantry and grabbed a mug from the cupboard. She was hoping this tea would help her sleep tonight, she just wanted to go to sleep early.

Once the tea was done she grabbed the cup and made her way to the small living room across from the kitchen. She sighed happily, taking a deep breath before slowly letting it out. She was feeling a lot calmer than she did when she first left work. The tea was definitely helping.

Grabbing the remote, Lyra turned on the TV and began flipping through the channels. House flipping show, some action movie, cooking show, a comedy series, another action movie. Nothing that caught the young woman's attention. She changed the channel once more and stopped on a news station.

Immediately her eyes were drawn to the clip on the screen. It was a video of a rocket ship flying up through the air and she knew that rocket. It was the one that she watched Shiro take off in.

But he wasn't supposed to be back for a while. The mission wasn't supposed to only be five months long. That much she knew.

Something wasn't right.

Turning up the volume she heard a woman's voice talking over the video clip.

"The Galaxy Garrison mission to the distant moon of Kerberos is missing," the woman spoke. "And all crew members are believed to be dead."

The video clip switched to three images. Shiro and the two other explorers who he accompanied. Lyra's eyes were trained on the image of Shiro.

A crash sounded through the apartment as the mug slipped through Lyra's fingers. She couldn't hear anything other than the woman's speaking; she didn't hear Emily calling her name.

Shiro was gone?

Shrio was gone.

Her eyes were wide and tears were forming in them as she stared at the TV. She could feel her heart pounding in her chest.

She couldn't breathe.

It was a joke. A sick joke. It had to be.

She didn't even realize she was on her knees screaming and crying until Emily was pulling her into a hug. She cried hysterically into her friend, her tears coming out faster and faster with each sob.

It wasn't real! Shiro couldn't be gone! He couldn't be!

It wasn't supposed to be like this. Not like this.

She was crying and shaking and screaming. She felt so numb. She couldn't hear anything, but her screams and the news station continuing its report. Everything was white noise and the world felt heavy.

Shiro was gone…

 **This took me forever to write! I knew how I wanted this chapter to play out, but I was struggling with writing the scenes. Eventually I ended up word vomiting at different scenes and it worked out.**

 **The end scene I did my best to write it as heartbreaking as possible. I'm not always the best with those kinds of scenes, but I think this is one of my better attempts at a scene like this.**

 **Huge thank you to puffandproud (tumblr)/em3kitty (fanfiction and wattpad) and rebelcolumbia (tumblr)/The Solar Surfer (fanfiction) for the help! If it wasn't for their help I wouldn't have been able to piece some scenes together.**

 **A big thank you to everyone who has reviewed, favorited, and followed the story so far. Reading your guys' reviews honestly made my day and I had a smile on my face for hours. I still read them every now and then because I was honestly nervous to post this story, but you guys are so nice that it's definitely brought my confidence. So, thank you!**

 **I'm debating creating a tumblr for this story where I'd post updates, playlists, edits I make, and Voltron stuff in general. I already have the blog saved under the-stars-remained just so if I did create the blog I'll have the name before someone takes it. If you're interested in a blog for the story let me know and I'll start working on it :)**

 **I hope you all enjoyed the chapter. I would love to hear feedback from you all so please leave a review!**


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

"Lyra! Your parents are here!"

Silence was the response Emily got after she called out to her roommate. She turned to the two standing behind her and gave them a sympathetic look. The woman was a short, blonde woman with bright blue eyes and a square face. The man next to her was tall, slender, with a slim face that had a bit of stubble growing, and sandy hair. Both wore a worried expression on their faces and stared passed Emily and towards the closed bedroom door across from them.

"She's um…" Emily cleared her throat. There was no way around it. She couldn't lie to her friend's parents. It was obvious their daughter wasn't okay. She hadn't been for a while now. "Her room is probably unlocked so you can just go on in."

"Thank you, Emily," the woman said, placing a hand on the young woman's shoulder and giving it a squeeze.

The parents made their way across the apartment and stood in front of the closed white door. They shared a quick glance before turning their attention back to the door. Reaching out with a hesitant hand the blonde woman knocked .

"Lyra, sweetie?" her mom called out. "Can we come in?"

There was no response.

"Princess," her dad said, "it's Mama and Papa. We're coming in." He paused a moment, waiting for an answer, but yet again there was no reply. Grabbing the doorknob he slowly opened the door, peering in as he did.

At first glance the room was dark. No lights were on, the blinds were drawn, almost as if someone wasn't in there. The second thing they noticed as they stepped in was everything that littered the floor. Clothes, papers, shoes, and the occasional bottle of Jägermeister were all scattered across the carpeted floor. The room looked like it hadn't been touched in months. In the middle of it all was the bed and all over it were wrinkled blankets that were haphazardly splayed across the mattress. At the head of the bed was a lump of blankets.

"Lyra?" Mrs. Jackson spoke out quietly as she and her husband approached the bed. "Sweetie?" She reached the head of the bed and looked down to see her daughter's head poking out from the bundle of blankets. The young woman's eyes glanced up at her for a fleeting second before turning to stare at the wall across from her. "Oh, sweetie…" Mrs. Jackson sat on the edge of the bed and placed a hand on her daughter's back, rubbing small circles on it. "How are you doing?"

It was an empty question, she didn't have to ask to get an answer from her. The state of her room was answer enough.

Mr. Jackson cleared his throat as he knelt down next to the bed. "Ly, I know you're sad. But you can't keep yourself locked up in your room. Your mom and I are worried about you. Emily's worried about you. We all are worried about you. You haven't been to work in weeks now."

Lyra glanced at her dad, her green eyes large and the brim of them filling with tears. Her lip quivered and she quickly ducked her head into the blankets, burrowing further into the material.

"Lyra, sweetie. You can't keep living like this." Mrs. Jackson continued to rub her daughter's back, sighing lightly as she heard a soft sob come from the blankets. "You can't keep living like this. Emily has told us that you haven't been eating; that you haven't been taking care of yourself."

"You're mother's right," Mr. Jackson agreed. "You've been cooped up in your room since the news. From what we've heard from Emily, you haven't left your room. Not to go to work. Not to eat. Not to take care of yourself. You need to take care of yourself. Sweetheart, you have to get and do something. You can't sit here and do nothing."

There was still no response from Lyra again aside from another soft sob.

Mrs. Jackson sighed and placed her hands in her lap as she stared down at her daughter. "You're sad. We all are. Shiro was a great man and he loved you. He wouldn't want to see you like this. He'd want to see you living your life." There was another shudder. "I know this is hard, but you have to keep going. Shiro would want that for you."

Lyra shuddered. "How do you know what he would want? He's gone. We can't know what he'd want." Her voice was barely above a whisper

Mr. and Mrs. Jackson exchanged glances. It wasn't much, but it was something.

"Hon, I'm sorry," Mrs. Jackson spoke up. "The Garrison sent drones out to Kerberos. There were no signs of the crew anywhere. No Shiro. No Commander Holt or his son. Not even their ship was found. It was a pilot error. Something happened and they disappeared." She sighed and gave her daughter a sympathetic look. "I know it's hard to comprehend this, but they're gone. Shiro wouldn't want you to be upset like this."

Lyra's face scrunched up in anger as she glared up at her mother. "Stop pandering me. You came to check on me, I'm fine, what more do you want?"

"Ly, you're far from fine, look around you. That bottle of Jägermeister that is poking out of your sheet - yes I can see it - does not show that you are fine. I want you to get out of bed right this minute, young lady. You're grieving, I get it, but you can't just throw your life away."

Lyra let out a loud sigh before rolling onto her other side, turning her back to her parents. The conversation was over.

The bed creaked as her mother stood up and the soft footsteps on the carpet slowly diminished away with the click of the door. Silence filled the room, leaving Lyra with her thoughts once more. Sobs wracked her body, shaking it as she curled up further into herself.

ooOOOo

Lyra blinked her eyes open, trying to get rid of the blurriness as she stared at her desk across from her bed. Eventually her sight cleared up.

She sighed and her grip on the blanket tightened. She didn't remember falling asleep. Then again that's how it has been for the past month.

After another ten minutes of laying in her bed, Lyra sighed. She had to get up. At least to use the bathroom.

Swinging her legs over the side of her bed, she padded her way to the bathroom. Turning on the light wasn't an agreeable motion for her. As soon as the light turned on she was blinded and had to squint in order to see around the small room. Once her eyes adjusted she was able to see everything on the sink - everything was in its place, untouched for weeks now.

Glancing up at the mirror she was taken aback at the sight in front of her. The woman in the mirror she didn't recognize. Her honey colored hair was flat and greasy, tangles were seen in practically every lock. The bags under her eyes were heavy and dark, standing out against her pale skin that was paler than usual. Travelling up from the dark circles, her green eyes looked lifeless - dead. There was no shine to them like they normally did, no emotion could be found. The paleness of her skin mixed with the light color of her hair made her look washed out. Then there was her body, skinnier than usual due to her lack of eating. Her whole appearance was like that of a ghost.

She felt like one too.

"Oh."

Lyra jumped at the voice and whipped around to see Emily standing in the middle of her room, a tray in her hand that carried a plate of food.

"You're up!" Emily said, giving her a smile. "That's great. Did the talk with your parents help?" she asked as she made her way to the nightstand next to the bed and placed the tray down. Standing up straight, she turned to her friend and offered another smile.

"Not really…" was Lyra's reply as she gripped her right arm and stared at the floor.

"Ah…" Emily pursed her lips, watching her friend as she made her way out of the bathroom. "I made you some food. I thought you might like to try eating?"

The honey colored haired woman just hummed in reply as she sat on the edge of her bed. She continued to stare at the floor, not bothering to look up at her friend.

"You know what I think we need in this apartment?" Emily spoke up after a moment of silence. "A cat!"

Lyra looked over at her friend with a scrunched up confused look on her face. "...A cat?" she asked slowly.

"Yeah!" There was a large smile on the redhead's face. "A cat would be great to have around here! Didn't you and Shiro once talk about getting one? Well I remember you did. You even asked me about getting one once. You were all about it a few months ago. Maybe getting a cat will be good for you…" She eyed her friend, watching for a reaction.

"I'm fine," was all the response she got.

"You're not fine though, Ly," Emily said, her face falling as she sat down next to her friend. She placed an arm around her shoulders and pulled her against her. "I get it you're sad, but you can't keep locking yourself away. You need to get out. Maybe going to work isn't the best thing right now. You could always use your vacation days. Jack understands but if you don't come in soon you might get fired."

Lyra didn't say anything.

Emily sighed and gave her friend a squeeze before standing up. "I made you a sandwich. I want you to eat it. You're not looking good, you've hardly eaten." She grabbed the tray and placed it on the bed next to the other woman. "I want you to take care of yourself, Lyra. You're my best friend and I care about you. Please."

With that the red-haired woman left the room leaving Lyra alone once more.

Lyra stared at the sandwich and slowly reached out a hand to take it. She smiled lightly when she looked at it. She'd have to thank Emily later.

Taking a bite she stared off into space, her thoughts flying through her head. She thought over what her parents and Emily had said to her. One thing that stuck out to her was something her mom had said.

"It was a pilot error."

Shiro was the pilot. He had been preparing for months for the mission. He had gone over every possible situation in his head while at the Garrison and at home. He studied every manual, every procedure, and every situation that could happen. Shiro was prepared and was ready beyond anyone she knew. He was picked to be the pilot for the Kerberos mission for this very reason.

It didn't make sense.

Lyra furrowed her brow and placed the sandwich back on the tray. Her brow furrowed. It didn't make sense.

Standing up, she made her way to her closet. Grabbing a pair a jeans and a hoodie she quickly changed and made her way out the door. Throwing on a baseball cap she made her way out of the apartment with a quick "Emily, I'm leaving!"

ooOOoo

Parking the car she stared at the building that stood in the middle of the desert area. The Garrison loomed in front of her, the lights from inside making it illuminate against the night sky. Lyra had been there once when Shiro had wanted to show her around a couple years ago. Now she was staring up at the grand structure with a bit of apprehension. She wasn't sure if she'd be able to just walk in or not. She was invited once by Shiro and then her mother tried to bring her over for another tour, but their schedules never coincided together. She could use the excuse that she's here to visit her mom if she was caught. Her mom was working late usually anyway.

If she was going to find anything about the Kerberos mission, this was where she was going to find it.

Inside was a drastic contrast to the outside. Where the desert area was hot - even for nighttime - the inside was cool and clean. The halls were silver metal with windows stretching across it in one long line. The lights shone brightly down on the woman with no flickering or humming. There was no one walking through the halls, not even guards keeping watch. It was eerily quiet.

"There's got to be some place that I can look into this. A computer or something," Lyra mumbled to herself as she stepped cautiously through the hall. Her footsteps made very light tapping sounds against the metal floors as she made her way around the school.

She was on edge. Not just because she was trying to make sure that she wasn't about to get caught by one of the officers, but because there was a chance that she might not find something on the mission. That was all she wanted tonight. Some clarification. Closure - if any.

As she was rounding a corner the woman could hear voices making her heart skip a beat. She was doing so well up until now.

Pressing herself against the wall, she peeked around the corner and spotted an officer, a guard, and a young girl down the hall standing in front of what looked like an office. The girl's expression read anything, but pleasant.

"Where's my family?" the girl shouted.

"Escort Miss Holt off the premises," the officer said, pointing to the guard. Right away the guard grabbed the girl. "And make sure every guard knows she's _never_ allowed on Garrison property ever again."

"You can't keep me out!" the girl yelled. "I'll find the truth! I'll never stop!"

Lyra's brow furrowed. She recognized that girl, but from where. Searching her memories she thought of where this girl could have been that they crossed paths.

"The launch…" she whispered, her eyes widening in realization. She had seen the girl with her mom at the launch. That must mean that the other two explorers were her brother and father.

She gasped and ducked away as the guard was leading the girl in her direction. As they walked by she watched as the angered girl struggled against the guard's grip. Lyra watched on with sympathy. She knew how the girl felt. Al she wanted was to find out the truth behind the "crash" and it seemed to Lyra that she had found out something was amiss with the Garrison's claims on the mission.

"Miss Jackson?"

Lyra whirled around with a gasp and was met with the officer from a moment ago. She stared up at him with wide eyes and mouth agape.

"Uh..I'm sorry…but uh how do you know my name?" she asked slowly.

"You're mother has talked a great deal about you and you were dating Takashi Shirogane if I recall. You were at the launch, right?" the officer asked, raising a brow.

Lyra mentally slapped herself. Of course people would know her through her mother and Shiro. Shiro was one of the top pilots and her mother is one of the top medics. Of course she'd have a reputation to some degree here.

"Oh right, of course," she responded with a small, nervous laugh.

"I'd like to give my sympathy to you for your loss," the officer said, bowing his head briefly.

"Um…thank you...Officer…" She trailed off, eyes scanning his suit for some sort of ID badge.

"Iverson," came his response.

"Thank you, Officer Iverson," she quickly said. Her heart clenched as she stared at him. More sympathy from people and it was sympathy from someone who apparently was hiding something about the Kerberos mission.

"What exactly are you doing here, Miss Jackson? It is late in the evening and you aren't a student here either." Iverson's eyes narrowed as he stared at her making Lyra's heart rate pick up a little.

"I was um looking for my mother's office," she said a little too quickly. She cursed herself at the rushed response. "I knew that she worked late hours sometimes and I thought I'd pay her a visit. Although I've only been here once and I never was shown where her office was."

"Well if you'd like me to show you I can," he said, gesturing his hand down the hall.

"Oh no no!" the light-haired woman said shaking her head quickly. "Thank you, but that's alright. I already got a message from my mother saying that she was too busy for a visit." She waved her phone in the air for emphasis as she smiled up at the dark skinned officer. "I'll have to try another day I guess."

"Very well," Iverson said with a quick nod. "If you do come back be sure to have a guard escort you. There are areas here that are not open to visitors."

"Right, thank you, sir." Lyra nodded her head and offered a quick smile before she turned back down the hall she came. She glanced over her shoulder after a few steps and saw Iverson staring at her as she left. Her heart skipped a beat, but she quickly covered her nerves with a smile and one last thank you as she headed down the hall.

Outside the Garrison she let out a heavy sigh and stared up at the stars with a forlorned look.

"So much for finding out what happened."

"Who are you?"

Lyra jumped when she heard a voice coming from her right. Looking over she saw the young girl from earlier staring at her with a furrowed brow.

"Uh…" Lyra cleared her throat as looked at the girl. "I'm Lyra Jackson. Who are you?"

"Katie Holt." Katie's brow furrowed again as she stared up at the large structure behind them. "Why are you here? You don't look like a student."

"I'm not. I was here for um...reasons…"

"Reasons?" Katie quirked a brow.

"We-well why are you here?" Lyra stuttered out.

The young girl sighed and stared down at the ground, fists clenching at her sides. "I'm here because...because…" She sighed again and looked up at Lyra with hard eyes. "Because I don't believe what the Garrison said about the Kerberos mission."

"You don't?" Lyra could feel a sense of hope welling up inside her. She was right, Katie was looking into the Kerberos mission. She wasn't alone in this.

"No. Something's off about their statements," she said, crossing her arms.

"Neither do I," the woman said, offering a small smile.

Katie blinked, mouth falling open slightly as she stared at Lyra in disbelief. "You don't?"

Lyra shook her head. "I don't. The fact that they said it was pilot error is a lie." She looked up at the sky, a sad smile forming on her face. "Shiro wouldn't crash the ship."

"You know Shiro?" Katie asked.

"He was my boyfriend…or really my fiance in a way," Lyra answered. She could feel the stinging of tears in her eyes and she quickly fought them back as she turned back to Katie.

"So that means you're Lanette Jackson's daughter? My dad's talked about your mom before. He says she's one of the best medics at the Garrison," Katie said, her eyes shining just ever so slightly.

"That sounds like Mama," Lyra said with a small chuckle. "And your Samuel Holt's daughter then."

"Yeah…" Katie's face fell at that. A hard look grew on her face and she spoke again after a couple minutes. "I'm going to find out what happened on that mission. I'm going to find my family."

"I want to find Shiro too," Lyra replied. She took a deep breath and slowly let it out. "I don't believe that it was a crash. Something had to have happened."

"The video feeds never showed any crash," Katie said, folding her arms over her chest and glaring at the entrance to the school. "The Garrison is covering something up."

"You were able to see the footage?" Lyra said, shocked.

Katie nodded.

Lyra bit her lip as she stared down at the ground. "Katie...I agree with you on everything. I think something happened and I think they are covering something up." She paused and looked at the young girl for a moment before speaking. "Do you want to work together and find out what happened?"

A smile slowly grew on Katie's face. A determined smile. "That sounds like a good idea to me." However, her smile disappeared quickly. "But how are we going to do that? I'm not allowed on the property anymore and you're not even a student."

"Well…" Lyra grabbed her arm and thought for a moment. How were they going to find the truth? She could go in and say she was visiting her mom, but she couldn't do that every day. It would lead to suspicion. Realization dawned on her as she slowly looked up at Katie. "I think I have an idea…"

 **Chapter three is finally finished! I'm sorry if this took a while. I knew what I wanted to happen in this chapter, but I kept losing motivation to write. I honestly liked how this chapter turned out and I hope you do too.**

 **I'm excited to get to the actual series, but I am also nervous because I'm horrible at incorporating new characters into an already given plot so it might take some time per chapter to figure out what Lyra will say and do. I have ideas for some episodes, but things might change from now until I get to those episodes. So I hope you can bear with me.**

 **I also created a tumblr for this story, so if you're interested in checking it out you can find it at** **the-stars-remained** **.**

 **I really hope you liked the chapter. I'd love to hear your thoughts on it and any feedback you might have that can help me improve so please leave a review. Thank you!**


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Lyra quickly threw her hands up to her ears to cover them from the shrill cry. She stared at her mother wide eyed as she had a giant smile on her face. Her mom looked ready to jump up and down.

"Look at you!" Mrs. Jackson squealed. "Oh! I knew you'd look adorable in the uniform!" She grabbed hold of Lyra's arms, tugging them out towards her as she looked her daughter over. Nodding with a smile, she looked back up at the younger woman. "You're going to love it here," she said, before wrapping her in a hug.

Lyra smiled lightly as she hugged her mother back. She knew this was how her mother would react. Ever since Shiro first joined the Garrison Lynette Jackson had constantly question why she didn't join. She knew her mother was a little disappointed that her daughter became a journalist instead of a medic with the Garrison like her, but she was happy for her nonetheless. That was the thing about her mother: As long as Lyra was happy so was her mother. But Lyra guessed that's how all mothers were to some extent.

"Thanks, Mama," Lyra said, tugging at the sleeve of her uniform. "I uh think this will be fun. I've always liked stars so I might as well try to um be as close to them as possible."

"That's the spirit!" Mrs. Jackson said, her smile growing. "I can give you the tour if you'd like. There's so much you need to see, you're going to love it."

"Uh maybe later, Mama," the light-haired woman said, shaking her head a little bit. "I'm meeting up with a friend and we're going to go see who's going to be on our team."

"Oh right, right!" Her mom continued to smile. She nodded her head and waved her hands, shooing her away. "Go meet your team! Remember they will be your allies and your family from now until you are an officer. And if you're lucky they will go with you on every mission after." She clasped her hands together, her eyes glowing. "You're going to love it!"

Lyra smiled softly at her mom. "You've told me, Mama." She took a deep breath and hugged her mom one last time. "I'll see you later."

"Good luck, sweetie!" Mrs. Jackson called out as she watched her daughter go.

With a small wave to her mom, Lyra made her way down the hall to find Katie. She sighed, closing her eyes for a brief moment as she turned a corner. All she needed to do was find Katie, then they could figure out who was on their team, and just go about their business. They still needed to find more information on Kerberos. That's all. Lyra felt bad, but she didn't plan to make friends here. She didn't ever plan on joining the Garrison until now and all she wanted to do was find out what happened to Shiro.

"Lyra."

The woman turned around and blinked when she saw the person standing behind her. The

young boy stared at her with bright amber eyes that were covered by wire rimmed glasses. He had light brown hair that reached a little past the tip of his ears that stuck out in every direction.

Lyra blinked once more, tilting her head as she looked him over. "Oh wow, you weren't kidding when you said you were going to cut your hair. "

"It was the only thing that I figured would help me not get noticed by Iverson," Katie replied, fidgeting with her glasses. "And I'm Pidge Gunderson now."

The older woman nodded. "Got it." She looked down the hall where she spotted some students in their orange uniforms heading down another hall. "Should we uh go see who our team is?"

Pidge shrugged. "Might as well."

They followed the path the other students had taken and rounded the corner to find a large group of students hovering around a board that hung on a wall. As they approached the group, it gradually dispersed and two students remained.

"I made it!" he cheered, a look of victory on his face. "I'm a fighter pilot!" The boy started to dance as the other boy next to him gazed at the bulletin. "Hasta la later Keith," he said, saluting the air. Swinging an arm around the other boy, he looked back at the bulletin board. "And look, you're my engineer."

"Cool!" the second boy said his eyes roaming around the bulletin. "Uh can I do that from the ground?"

"And our communications officer and medic are…" He trailed off, leaning closer to the board. "Who the heck are Pidge Gunderson and Lyra Jackson?"

"Right here," Pidge said, stepping up behind the two, raising a hand.

Lyra followed and stood next to her, offering a smile to the two boys. "Hi."

"Welcome to the team, Gunderson," the first boy said as he and the other approached the new members. "I'm Lance, your fighter pilot. And it's nice to meet you, Lyra," he said, giving the woman a suave grin and a wink.

Lyra's eyes widened slightly and shifted them from side to side. She was definitely not expecting that greeting at all. "Um hello, Lance, it's nice to meet you um too."

"Hey, I'm Hunk," the second boy said, extending a hand two both Pidge and Lyra.

"We have a lot of great times a head so we should start bonding now," Lance said with a lazy smile.

A voice behind the two boys caught Lyra and Pidge's attention. The two peered around their new teammates and spotted Iverson talking with another officer. Lyra bit her lip and glanced down at Pidge to see a scowl on her face as she stared at the older man.

The older woman glanced back up at Iverson to only see him finishing up his conversation with the officer and heading straight for their group. Right away both her and Pidge straightened up. Pidge had her hand on her forehead in a salute while Lyra tugged on her sleeve.

"Wrong arm, cadet," Iverson said, not even bothering to look at Pidge as he walked by. At the sound of his voice all four quickly jumped into the proper stance and saluted the officer.

Pidge let out a sigh once the officer was there and Lyra closed her eyes, trying to calm her heart rate.

"Hello," Lance spoke up. "Pizza? Girls? Astronauts?" he stated, leaning closer to Pidge.

"Sorry, I don't have time to mess around with you guys," Pidge responded, not missing a beat. She walked around the two boys, not bothering to spare them a glance. "See you in the simulator."

"Um I'm not really hungry," Lyra said, giving a sympathetic smile to the tan skinned boy as she followed her friend.

"We should find our dorms and start researching more on Kerberos," Pidge stated as the two females walked side by side down the hall.

"I uh brought my laptop so I can start looking into what the mission was for or something," Lyra offered, looking down at her younger friend.

"That sounds good," Pidge nodded. "I'm thinking of finding a way to pick up anything interstellar," she stated. "If my family and Shiro are still alive they could be in space still. I might be able to pick up any chatter from them or anything around them."

"You can do that?" Lyra asked, eyes wide.

A smirk formed on Pidge's face. "I have some ideas on machines I can make. It won't be too hard." She stopped walking and stood in front of a door. "This is my dorm. I'll meet up with you later for lunch and we can talk more then."

"Alright," Lyra said, nodding her head once. "I'll see you later, Pidge." She gave a quick wave before continuing down the hall in search of her dorm. Her thoughts ran wild as she thought of what Pidge and her could find on the Kerberos mission. It was this moment where she was glad that she had taken up journalism and had to learn how to research further into the topics she wrote about. She knew back ways into information. That's what she was planning on doing for the next couples hours and more tonight.

ooOOoo

Two months had past since Pidge and Lyra joined the Garrison and started their training with Lance and Hunk. To say that it was easy was an understatement. At least for Lyra it was. Pidge seemed to have a grasp on everything space and technology while Lyra struggled to understand how to use any of the medical tech, the space vessels that they would pilot once they graduated, and everything mathematical that was related to space travel. However, she was able to memorize the planets and stars with no problem. But that was also because she knew them before she ever joined. She was now struggling to memorize the moons that surrounded some of the planets and some other planets that the Garrison had found in recent years.

Lyra wasn't too thrilled about being at the Garrison at this point.

"This is why I never wanted to join," she grumbled as she ate a bite of potatoes.

"I didn't know it would be this hard for you," Pidge said, raising a brow at her friend. "I think it's all fascinating and pretty easy to learn."

"I like learning," Lyra stated, pouting slightly as she looked up at her. "But I am a journalist. I do better with research. I can't learn things and then try to memorize them. I just research them and write reports on them."

"That explains all the A's on your papers," the younger woman said, taking a bite of her own food.

She and Pidge were currently seated by themselves at a table in the cafeteria. It was in between classes and they had found a chance to grab something to eat. For two months now the two had been researching all that they could on the Kerberos mission and trying to find any indication that Shiro and the Holts were somewhere in space. In less than a week Pidge had created a machine to pick up interstellar chatter which amazed Lyra to no end.

How could a fourteen-year-old be able to build such a high tech machine in such a short amount of time?

Lyra sighed as she pushed her potatoes around with her fork. "Have you found anything?" she asked after a moment.

Pidge's face fell as she glanced up at Lyra. "Nothing yet…"

Like the teen, Lyra's face fell. Hesitantly she reached across the table and placed a hand on Pidge's. "We'll figure it out. I know it."

"Whatcha guys talking about?"

The two looked up to see Lance and Hunk taking a seat next to them. Lyra smiled lightly as Lance took a seat next to her, nodding her head in greeting.

"None of your business," Pidge answered, rolling her eyes. "What are you guys doing here?"

"We're getting lunch," Hunk said, lifting his tray of food. "I was hungry. I had an exam today and I get hungry when I'm nervous and I heard there was mashed potatoes today and that sounded really good and I just get really stressed during exams."

Lyra blinked as she stared at Hunk. Even after the two months of working with him, she was still not used to his nervous ramblings at times.

"Hunk, just breathe," Lance said with a small eye roll. "Seriously," he turned back to them, "what are you two talking about? Planning a date or something?" His eyes traveled down to Lyra's hand that was still covering Pidge's.

"We're not dating!" Pidge snapped as she and Lyra pulled away from each other. "We've told you this before."

"Well excuse me," Lance scoffed. "You two are always together and you never want to get to know us. Hunk and I thought you two were dating."

"Uh to clarify," Hunk spoke up, holding up a finger, "Lance thought you two were dating. I never brought it up."

"Thanks for throwing me under the bus, Hunk," the Cuban boy mumbled, glaring at his friend. "What's up with you two? You constantly run off together doing who knows what. What's up with that?"

"Like I said," Pidge replied, taking a drink from her cup, "it's none of your business."

Lance rolled his eyes once more. "Whatever." He took a bite of his food, waving his fork around before pointing at Pidge and moved to Lyra. "So are you guys ready for the desert training course?"

Lyra furrowed her brow. "What desert training course?"

"What you guys don't know?" Hunk asked, glancing from one to the other. "Everyone's been talking about it. There's going to be this big survival course where we're going to have to survive the desert for a week."

"N-no...we haven't heard about this," Lyra slowly said, her face growing with worry.

"When does this course start?" Pidge asked.

"Next week."

 **I finally got this chapter out!**

 **I want to thank rebelcolumbia (tumblr)/The Solar Surfer (fanfiction), Ray Akaba (fanfiction), and JuggernautJJ (fanfiction) for the help. You guys helped me figure out how this chapter would play out. Thank you for your reviews and feedback. It means a lot and helped so much.**

 **Thank you to fantasy.92 for the reviews and messages and happy belated birthday!**

 **If you guys have any questions or feedback you'd like to give feel free to PM me here or message me on tumblr at the-stars-remained.**

 **I hope you guys liked this chapter! I'd love to hear your thoughts so feel free to leave a review!**

 **Update: My blog has been deleted so if you do see the-stars-remained on tumblr it isn't mine. But if anyone is interested in a tumblr for this blog let me know and I'll think about recreating it. I deleted it due to lack of activity. I think it's hard to start up a blog for a fanfic so with the lack of activity I decided to quit for the time being.**


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Eyes wide, she looked around the area they were standing in. She couldn't get over the fact that at this very moment she was standing in the middle of the desert. The students around her all had mixed expressions of excitement and confusion. Lance standing next to her, had a look of pure confidence radiating off of him, a smirk grew on his face and had his full attention on the teacher. Hunk on Lance's other side had a look of utter fear. The large boy always seemed to have some worry in the back (and front) of his mind and this time was no exception. The poor kid looked like he was about to faint.

Lyra turned to her left to look at Pidge, who surprisingly had no expression whatsoever. Pidge just looked at the teacher with a bored face as if this situation they were in wasn't bothering her in any way.

For Lyra, this was a moment of pure confusion and worry. She wasn't trained for this sort of thing. Granted this was why she and the other students were here: to learn and train for these kind of situations, but this was not what she wanted to do with her life. This was what Shiro was all about. She enjoyed listening to him tell her all about the training sessions he had while at the Garrison, but that did not mean she wanted to experience them herself!

Her brow arched up in worry as she watched their teacher, General Fairweather, pace up and down the line of students, a scowl on her face. General Fairweather was a short brown haired woman, who at first glance was unintimidating as Lance had learned the first day of class with her. He had done his usual flirting with any girl or woman he saw and the immediate response from General Fairweather was not good. Lyra felt a little bad for the Cuban boy at that moment, but the boy never really learned from any flirting rejections.

"Today, you start your survival training exercise," Fairweather declared, voice booming out. "You and your team will be dropped off in a location out in the desert, away from other teams. The point is to simulate a crash landing on an unknown planet. It is up to you and your team to delegate roles; it is imperative to your survival. This is a skill and team building exercise, you need to hone your skills and work as a team. Failure to do both results in your death and in a failing grade." She took a moment to look every student in the eyes, slowly rotating her head from left to right. "Now, go meet up with your transporter. They will take you and your team to your location. Good luck."

Lyra could feel her heart pounding faster and faster with each word Fairweather said. Would she be able to handle this? She was a journalist for crying out loud! She shouldn't be out in the desert learning how to survive. Although, as she thought about it she realized that this would make a pretty good story to write about. The classes and lessons you learn at the Garrison would be something that many people would love to read, especially from someone who experienced it first hand.

Looking back on everything that led up to this moment. Lyra lived a calm life. She had a job she loved. She had her roommate Emily, her friends, her family, and she had Shiro. Then it went down hill when she heard the news about the Kerberos mission which led to her meeting Katie/Pidge. And now here she was training in the Galaxy Garrison, something she never wanted, but something she needed to do in order to find the truth.

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, fists clenching, as she tried to tried to slow down her heart and calm her nerves.

"You okay?" Pidge's voice sounded next to her.

Lyra opened her eyes, looking down at the young girl next to her, who had a concerned look on her face. Giving a small smile in return, the honey-haired woman nodded. "I'm fine, um just a little nervous."

"Don't worry, Lyra," Lance spoke up coming up next to the two. He had a slight swagger in his step that matched the gleaming confident look on his face. "With me as your leader there's no need to worry."

"With you as leader, now I'm worried even more," Pidge deadpanned, as Lance continued to smile as he placed his hands on his hips. "Are you guys ready at least?" she asked, looking from Lance to Hunk, who had a look of unease all over his face. Lyra swore he looked like he was going to be sick, and with Hunk that wasn't something new.

"I think I am," Hunk answered, his eyes shifting from side to side as he watched the other teams head off to their transports. "You don't think they're going to leave us without any supplies or any way to communicate with us, do you? Because we're students after all and this could be dangerous. Oh no," he light gasped, eyes going wide, "you don't think she was serious about this leading to our death, do you? Because I'm young, I don't want to die. There's so many things I haven't done or seen. This is a little intense, I don't think I-"

"Hunk!" Lance shouted, scowling at the rambling boy. He folded his arms over his chest as the larger boy clamped his mouth shut. "Chill out, big guy. We've got this in the bag."

"You're way too calm about this," Pidge muttered, glaring once again at her teammate. "If you weren't listening to General Fairweather and the briefing before we got here, our supplies will be scarce. The point of this exercise is to work as a team to survive a crash landing. What resources they give us we'll have to ration."

The thought of having to learn to survive under such circumstances was making Lyra's heart race. Taking in a deep breath, she reached up and grasped the tiny gold star that hung around her neck. Closing her eyes, she slowly let out her breathe. She wasn't ready, but she had to be.

ooOOoo

They were far from ready.

Scanning the area around her with wide eyes, Lyra felt her heart beginning to race. They had just started the simulation and already things were in chaos. Their transporter had dropped them off far into the desert, right under a cliff overhang, handed them each a small bag of supplies that they were to be in charge of, drove off and left the four to their devices.

Looking around, Lyra could tell that things were not going to be fine. Each of them were standing off by themselves trying to get their tasks and supplies in order. Trying being the key word.

Hunk had the task of helping Lance check their food supplies and within minutes began panicking. It was the third time that he was looking through said supplies and his reaction was not helping their situation whatsoever. He was rambling again, voicing his concerns of there not being enough.

"How are we going to survive just one night? This is barely enough for one person. This is barely enough for me. Where are we supposed to even find resources for more food? We are in the desert! What am I supposed to do? Cook up cactus goo?" He was frantic and his brow was furrowed as he looked around, gesturing at the vast emptiness around them.

"Technically you can't eat cactus, just the water from them. And that's only with a certain number of species," Pidge said, adjusting her glasses as she looked up from her work with the communicator. "But what you can eat is their fruit or flowers. Again, that's only with certain ones."

"See, Hunk?" Lance said, walking over and placing a hand on his friend's shoulder, "there's nothing to be afraid of. You'll just have to go vegan when we run out of our food."

"But how are we supposed to know what cactus' are good?" Hunk questioned right before going into another tyraid. "Is there anything else out here we could use for food? I think I saw an armadillo when we were dropped off. But he's probably long gone by now. Oh but that would require…" The Samoan boy paused as he thought of the implications of surviving on armadillo would be.

Lyra paled at the thought as well. With a sigh, she took a seat on the sand filled ground, crossing her legs. Looking at the bag in her hands, her heart clenched at the thought of what little medical supplies could be in there. The light-haired woman tried to think back to some of the medic classes she had taken so far, trying to recall what it was her mother had taught her and the rest of her classmates. If she remembered correctly she would be able to use certain plants out here in the desert if it came down to it and if what General Fairweather had implied, there was no set amount of supplies for each team. It was more of a "You get what you get" sort of situation for each team out here.

Taking a deep breath and closing her eyes, she opened the bag.

Inside she found a few rolls of gauze, adhesive tape, five different bottles of ointments and remedies, a box of bandages, a box of cotton swabs, and…

Lyra couldn't help but smile lightly. Nestled amongst the other medical supplies was a red and white inhaler. She could only guess it was her mother's doing. Most likely she had told the teachers preparing the supplies for the students. Even when Lyra was right next to her, her mother was always keeping an eye on her.

Closing up the bag, she looked up at the rest of her team and her face fell. Just a few feet in front of her Lance and Pidge were in each other's faces yelling at each other. Nothing new.

Lyra sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. What could they be possibly arguing about now? They were on a survival training course. They needed to work together in order to not only pass, but to survive!

"I'm 25 and I have to babysit…" she thought looking down at the ground in defeat. Slowly she stood up, dusting off the sand before she approached the rest of her team. "What's happening?" she asked slowly, eyeing the two as they continued to glare at each other.

"Pidge isn't following my orders even though he knows I'm leader of this group," Lance began, pointing a finger at Pidge. "I'm the leader. You have to follow my orders," he emphasized, getting in the shorter teammate's face.

"Your 'orders'," Pidge countered, glaring daggers at the tan skinned boy, "was to have me help Hunk with his work when you know that I have to work on fixing communications with base. _Your_ job as leader is to assist anyone of us, not dump all the work on us while you lay around sun tanning."

"Excuse me, but as your leader I have to be well rested in order to help us escape," Lance defended.

"How so?" the red haired teen argued, raising a brow at the "leader".

"I need to be in top shape in order to fly us back to base once all of you guys finish your duties," he shot back, waving a dismissive hand at the end.

"Um Lance…" Lyra said, brow furrowing upward. "T-to be a leader you need to work with your team. In order for us to survive we need to work together and not leave it all to one person." She paused slightly shrinking into herself as she looked at Lance. "I'm sorry, Lance, bu-but we need your help with things as well."

"Ha!" Pidge said, grinning smugly at her teammate.

Lance began pouting; folding his arms across his chest. "Fine."

ooOOoo

Within two days the team had ran out of their food supplies with just one bit of stale bread remaining. They had successfully rationed everything amongst themselves, but now they had to start thinking of ways to find food. Hunk wasn't helping the situation with his nervous ramblings. Lance and Pidge's arguing still occurred every now and then much to Lyra's and Hunk's annoyance. There had been a few times where Lyra literally had to hold Pidge back from attacking Lance when his back was turned.

Looking out at the horizon, Lyra sighed and brought a hand up to her neck. Feeling the tiny gold star that rested against her collar bone brought memories back of the time when she got it. Memories of Shiro coming back for his first visit home after joining the Garrison. A momento to let her know that he still wanted to be with her. That he would be with her no matter how far away.

He didn't give up on her while they were at different schools and she wasn't going to give up on him now while they were in two different worlds. Wherever he was.

"Stop touching my stuff!"

Pidge's shout broke the oldest teammate's thoughts, causing a throbbing ache in the side of her head. Lyra slowly turned to look over to the youngest and found her and Lance once again facing off.

"They're at it again…" Hunk mumbled from Lyra's left.

"What's going on now?" Lyra said exasperatedly. She approached the two, raising hands up to make sure that the two didn't start a physical fight.

"Lance won't stop touching my stuff!" Pidge repeated, looking at Lyra and jabbing a finger in Lance's direction. "He's messing up the work I've been doing on the radio."

"I'm trying to help!" Lance shouted back. "I thought my _job_ as a leader was to help my teammates so here I am helping."

"You're messing up the progress I've made! I almost had communications back up and running and then you messed everything up!"

"Pidge," Lyra said calmly, placing a hand on the young teenager's shoulder, "I'm um sure Lance didn't mean to. He's not wrong that he was trying to help, but uh…" she turned to Lance. "L-Lance, you um need to be more careful. We appreciate you um trying to help, but y-you also need to make sure the other person needs your help first." God she hated ordering people around…

"I was just seeing what Pidge was doing to get the radio to work again," Lance said, rolling his eyes. "But if you want me to ask first, I'll be sure to do that next time, beautiful." He flashed Lyra a confident, toothy smile and a wink.

"Oh sure, listen to Lyra," Pidge mumbled, glaring off to the side. "See a pretty girl and you'll do whatever they say."

"What was that?" Lance yelled, placing his hands on his hips.

Lyra buried her face in her hands. Why couldn't they just get along? And as if the weather was matching the two fighting teammates' mood, a strong wind started to pick up, blowing through their mini camp.

"Pidge, Lance," Lyra began, opening her mouth just as a gust of wind kicked up some dirt. As she took a breath to speak, the honey-haired woman breathed in some of the dirt.

It happened in seconds. Lyra began coughing on the dirt, causing the other three to stop what they were doing and stare. Slowly the coughing turned into choking. The woman could feel her throat start to close. Her eyes began to water as they widened. She could feel her face beginning to turn red from the strain of trying to breathe. Her breath was coming out in wheezes.

She fell to her knees, her eyes squeezed shut as she continued to choke.

"Lyra!"

She thought she heard Pidge calling her name. She couldn't tell at this point. Her vision was starting to turn black at the edges.

She felt a hand on her back and could feel the presence of the last two teammates in front of her. Concerned voices were trying to reach her ears, but were starting to become muffled.

"Lyra!"

That was Lance.

"Lyra, what's happening?" Lance asked, eyes scanning the reddening face of his teammate. "What's happening to her?" he asked, looking over at Pidge, waiting for a answer.

"I-I'm not sure," Pidge said, frantic as she tried to figure out a way to stop her friend from choking.

Lifting her head, Lyra struggled to open her eyes as she choked and wheezed. Watery eyes glanced around the camp frantically before they landed on the med kit. With a shaky hand she raised it and pointed to the black bag.

"The med kit, hurry!" Pidge shouted and immediately Hunk jumped to his feet.

"I've got it," Hunk announced as he took his spot in front of Lyra again. Nearly ripping open the bag, he dug into it. Without saying a word he extracted the inhaler and quickly handed it to the choking woman.

Lyra snatched it from the large boy and brought the red and white device to her mouth. Pushing down on the button, she felt a the rush of the powdery spray going down her throat and beginning to relieve her. The muscles in her throat began to loosen and her airway was opening again.

She gasped as she took the inhaler away, the rush of the warm desert air hitting her throat and lungs. The redness in her face was fading away.

"Lyra, are you okay?"

Hunk was the first to speak.

The woman looked up and was greeted with the concerned looks on her teammates' faces. Offering a small smile, she nodded.

"Yes, I'm okay now." She turned to Hunk. "Thank you for grabbing the med kit for me."

"Why didn't you tell us you had asthma?" Pidge spoke next. "I don't think the Garrison should have let you on this training course if you have it."

"We're training to go into space, they want us to be prepared for anything," Lance stated. He looked at Lyra, a worried expression on his face still. "It's pretty lucky we had an inhaler in our med kit."

"I think that was my mom's doing," Lyra said through a couple deep breaths. "My guess is she told Fairweather or one of the other higher ups who was prepping the supplies for us."

"You had us worried there," Hunk said, helping her stand up. "It was kind of scary seeing that the only person who could perform any medical treatment on you was you."

Lyra let out a little chuckle. "Yeah, that would have been a problem." She stopped and looked at the campsite before looking at her team. "We...we should start looking for food soon."

"Right," Lance said, standing up as well. "Pidge, how about you continue working on the radio. Lyra you stay with him. Hunk and I can go look for something we can use for food."

"Do you even know what we can use for food?" Pidge questioned with a raised brow.

"Uh…" Lance held up a hand before letting it droop down at the wrist. "No, I do not."

"I do," Lyra spoke up. "I was researching some tips and tricks to survive out here before we started the course. I know some of the plants we can eat. I can go with you."

"Alright then." Lance placed a hand on his chin, thinking for a moment before snapping his fingers. "Hunk you stay with Pidge and help him with the radio. Use your engineer skills to help him with his techno skills. Lyra," he said, turning to the freckle faced woman with a smirk, "you can come with me to find food. And don't worry, I'll be sure to keep you safe."

Lyra gave a half hearted smile, brows arching upward as she followed Lance out into the desert, making sure to pocket her inhaler. Her hand on instinct reached for her neck and she began fiddling with the star once again. Her nerves getting the best of her especially after that asthma attack. This was going to be long day. She just hoped that Lance would be able to find the right plants with her.

 **I am back. Sorry for the late update, but life has become really busy since the last update. I honestly am not sure how often I will be able to update. Writing has become a bit of a struggle for me, not just with this story but with my other stories as well. I hope you can understand if I don't update again for a while.**

 **I hope you enjoyed the chapter though! I wanted to showcase some sort of class at the Garrison and my friend The Solar Surfer/rebelcolumbia (tumblr) suggested a desert survival course. For months I was plotting whenever I could find time and then recently I got inspiration after watching season 6 and here we are. After watching season 6 I started plotting again and came up with the idea of Lyra having asthma. I have some ideas for that in the future so lets hope I am able to get to those ideas. Lets just hope I can even update the next chapter.**

 **I am still figuring out what episodes in the series to skip and do time jumps. There's so many episodes and we all know what happens in a lot of them so I am currently figuring out which ones are the most important and which ones I could summarize.**

 **If you're interested on keeping up with updates for the story feel free to follow me on my tumblr for this story. I recently reopened it. It's thestarsremained all one word. Or you can find me at melapede my personal tumblr.**

 **I hope you enjoy the chapter. Let me know what you think and leave a review!**


	6. Chapter 6

Sitting in a lecture at 8 in the morning was one of the few things that Lyra hated back in college and even now at the Garrison it was something she despised. Especially when she didn't get coffee in the morning. Which is what happened this morning. She had woken up late, practically sprinting through the halls to get to the class. And now her growling stomach and nodding head was not helping anything.

She shook her head, trying to wake herself up and pay attention to the professor in front of the class, who happened to be her mother. And being as it was her mother, she was chipper as always even for 8am.

"Now remember, the symptoms for nitrogen poisoning can include: lightheadedness, impaired judgement, fatigue, numbness in limbs, decrease of motor control, euphoria and in some cases unconsciousness," Mrs. Jackson was saying from the front of the room. Lyra watched her mom pace back and forth, making eye contact with every student in the room some way or another. It always impressed Lyra how her mom could control a room in a matter of seconds. It was another reason why she was the top medic at the Garrison. "But please," Mrs. Jackson continued, stopping in the middle of the front. "Remember to be wary when trying to judge your teammates' symptoms. For all you know they could just be skipping meals." She gave a smile and some laughter could be heard scattered around the room as some friends glanced at one another with knowing smiles.

Mrs. Jackson walked over to her desk, picking up a small device and clicked a button. The project turned on and a powerpoint started up. The woman turned back to the class, using the laser pointer feature of the clicker in her hand.

"Now we will be-"

Just as she started speaking the bell signalling the end of class. Immediately the students began gathering up their things, creating a loud commotion that broke the once silent lecture hall. Lyra, on the other hand, slowly gathered her things up. She had no intention of fighting the crowd of students to reach the exit. She'd rather avoid the shoving and pushing. Plus it gave her a couple minutes with her mom that she normally didn't get during the day.

Standing up, she approached her mom as the woman gathered up her own papers and devices from the lecture. She greeted her daughter with a smile as the honey haired woman reached her desk.

"I told you you'd be great as a medic," Mrs. Jackson stated, holding up a paper that had a 100 on it in red marker. "You completely aced the last test. I'm proud of you, Lyra."

Lyra offered a small smile as a hint of pink dusted her cheeks. "Thanks, Mom, but I can't really take all the credit." She looked down at her hands and began picking at the nail polish on her left middle finger. Praise always made her bashful. "I owe it to you. If it weren't for you teaching me as I grew up I don't think any of this would have stuck."

"Nonsense!" Mrs. Jackson said, placing a hand on the younger woman's shoulder. "You're a brilliant woman, Lyra. Don't ever sell yourself short." She gave her shoulder a squeeze along with a sympathetic smile. "...How are you holding up?"

The smile on Lyra's face falter, but she quickly forced a it back. "I'm uh fine...I guess."

"Oh, sweetie," Mrs. Jackson cooed, pulling her daughter in for a hug. "I know it's hard with Shiro being gone. But he'd be happy to see you living your life and he'd be proud to see what you've been accomplishing here." She paused, placing a hand on her cheek. "You two would have been amazing explorers together."

"I know," said Lyra, casting her gaze down at the floor.

Mrs. Jackson frowned, watching the crushed look on her daughter's face. "Come on," she said, nudging her chin with her fist. "Let's get you something to eat. You have that simulation today with your team right?" She gave her daughter's shoulder another squeeze before leading them out of the lecture hall.

Lyra internally groaned at the thought. Today as the day that each team would be trying out the flight simulation with Commander Iverson. Which meant that she'd be taking it with her team. Her team which still had issues of getting along. Her team which nearly failed their survival exercise four months ago…

Was there a way to get out of the simulation?

"Yeah...I'm um looking forward to it," Lyra said, starting up her nail polish picking.

"Don't be nervous, sweetie," Mrs. Jackson said. "You'll do just fine. You and your team just have to work together and the simulation is a breeze."

"Work together...right…" the young woman mumbled, eyes slightly wide as she stared at the ground. "Speaking of my team." She spoke up after a moment, remembering a small detail from earlier in the day. "I have to go meet my teammate Pidge right now. I'm sorry I almost forgot. Can we grab lunch tomorrow, Mom?"

"Absolutely!" Mrs. Jackson said, a smile on her face. "I'm glad you're getting along with your team. Go enjoy your time off before your next class. I'll see you later, Lyra."

With that Mrs. Jackson walked off, but not before giving her daughter one last hug. Lyra smiled, watching her mom leave, a little sad that she had to cancel their lunch plans, but she had to meet with Pidge while she had time off.

Speaking of Pidge.

Up ahead of her, Lyra spotted the small girl shoving her way through the crowd of students as they walked to their next destination. The honey haired woman blinked as Pidge ran up to her, a large smile on her face and it looked like the girl was ready to bounce around the hall and off the walls.

"Uh Pi-" She began only to be cut off by Pidge practically shouting her name in excitement.

"I did it Lyra…" Pidge interrupted. "I found something."

Lyra's heart skipped a beat. Rather, it plummeted to her stomach. She stood there with her mouth slightly ajar and eyes wide. She kept playing Pidge's words over and over in her head, making sure she didn't hear wrong. "Y-you found something? What is...what is it?" She could feel her words dying in her throat.

She knew that she couldn't get her hopes up, it had only been a year since Shiro went missing, she and Pidge had been scouring all sorts of frequency and information from the Garrison that they could get their hands on. Lyra had been talking with her mom and anyone she could think of where she could casually slip a question in that could possibly give her some answers as to the disappearance of the crew. Lyra, with her mom's credentials was able to get into some files on the system, but that only go her so far due to her mom's restrictions to certain information. That's where Pidge came in. Pidge had been hacking into the system for a while now trying to find anything that could help them. She had picked up a few things, but they were all useless and led to nothing.

In the end the girls had found nothing that could help them find out what happened to their loved ones.

"I can't say right now," Pidge answered, glancing at the passing students and occasional teacher. She got closer to Lyra, standing on her toes ever so slightly as the older female was a few inches taller than her. "I can show you in my room. Come on," she said, grabbing Lyra's hand.

She began pulling her partner down the hall, pushing past more students once again. "Pidge!" Lyra cried out as she tripped over her feet for the second time. The young girl was practically dragging her down the hall. "Slow down." They turned a corner as she tried to right herself. "We-we have time to ge-"

"Lyra?"

The two females stopped just as they were about to run into someone and looked up to meet the bespectacled eyes of one of the teachers at the Garrison. Adam.

Lyra's eyes widened slightly when she saw the man in front of her. He had a similar expression on his face as they made eye contact. Pidge looked between the two, raising a brow as she waited for one of them to speak.

"Um...hello, Adam," she greeted, a blush forming on her cheeks.

"I um…" Adam began, adjusting his glasses for a moment as he thought over his words. "I've been wanting to speak with you. Um since I saw you in my class on the first day, but we haven't had a chance." He paused for a moment, looking down at his feet. "I wanted to see how you were doing and um tell you that I'm sorry."

Lyra blinked. "Sorry?" she questioned. She knew exactly what he was referring to. She had been hearing it from relatives, friends, coworkers, and now people at the Garrison who knew who she was. It wasn't anything new, but it was something she was tired of hearing. But for some reason with Adam, she didn't mind.

"I knew about Shiro's disappearance and never got the nerve to ask you how were you," Adam said, finally looking up and meeting the short woman's eyes. "I'm sorry Lyra."

Like the man in front of her, she looked down at her feet. Her face fell into a downcast expression and she could feel the tension in her shoulders growing. She understood Adam, she after all was the current girlfriend of his ex-boyfriend. Still with the circumstances, she believes that maybe things shouldn't be this tense around them.

She gave a small nod. "I'm sorry too. Even if we never talk you are one of the few people who would understand this." She took a deep breath as the feelings she felt when she first heard the news of Shiro's disappearance resurfaced. The feelings of despair and hopelessness. The feeling that she might never see him again. Looking back at the Garrison teacher in front of her she spoke, "And I know you are in pain too... so having you asking me how I am, it's just so bizarre. Not that i'm ungrateful."

They never were close friends, let alone _friends_. But Lyra could sense the honestly in his words.  
And it sunk in how it all felt familiar to her. Like him, she at that moment felt sorry for him.

She met his eyes again and saw a small, sad smile on the man's face. "I um ho-hope you're doing well."

"Who would have thought this would have brought us together." Adam said, before he paused once more. A bitter laugh came from him, causing Lyra's heart to seize. He offered her smile. "I'm glad you're looking well...despite everything. And I...I know Shiro would be happy to see you doing well, even joining the Garrison."

Lyra gave a tiny laugh. "Y-yeah, there was a um time he tried to get me to j-join, but I kept refusing. Now...I guess...I'm here for h-him."

Adam nodded slowly, staring at his feet again. There was an awkward silence that fell between the two before he clears his throat. "I will uh see you around then, Lyra. Bye."

With one final nod, Adam walks past the two females without a second glance. Lyra watches him, her eyes starting to brim with tears. Thoughts of Shiro had resurfaced upon seeing Adam. She had found someone else who was feeling just as lost as she was and it was her boyfriend's ex-boyfriend. Someone she never thought she'd see again. An unlikely person who she thought at that moment that maybe - just maybe - she could talk with from time to time, share each other's thoughts on the matter. Someone who shared the same feelings as her.

"...Lyra?"

Pidge's voice broke Lyra out of her trance and she glanced down at the light brown haired girl, who had a look of concern etched on her face. It was then that Lyra realized they were still standing in the hallway which was now clear of any other people.

"Lyra, are you alright?" Pidge glanced at her before glancing behind her at the corner Adam had just turned down. "Who was that?"

"That was um…" Lyra paused, trying to get the lump out of her throat. "That was um Shiro's ex-boyfriend."

"Oh…" The young girl looked at her friend, sympathy clouding her eyes.

"Let's um let's get to your ro-room," Lyra stuttered, clearing her throat. "Y-you said you found something."

"Um right, uh," Pidge shifted from one foot to the other. "How about we get something to eat instead and we meet on the roof later tonight. I can show you what I found then. I heard that they have chocolate pudding today." She offered a bright smile to the older female, hoping to alleviate some of the tension.

Lyra smiled back. "That sounds like a plan. I've been craving chocolate for a couple days now."

"We can also discuss our plan for the simulation as well," Pidge said as the two started their path towards the commissary. "Maybe we can find Lance and Hunk and see if we can come up with some as a team." There was a slight tone of irritation in her voice as she brought up the other two teammates. Lyra could already guess who out of the two was causing Pidge's irritation.

"Knowing Hunk, he's probably already at the commissary," she offered, this time the one lightening the mood. "I'm sure once we um start talking with them we'll figure out a way to-to uh get through the simulation and pass."

ooOOoo

Once again Lyra found herself in a team exercise where she was staring around her in a panic. The sounds of their vessel gliding through space and bouncing off of a couple asteroids filled the air as Lance piloted through the obstacles. Pidge was off to the side typing away at her controls and Hunk...Hunk was starting to look green again.

"Uh Lance, can you keep this straight," Hunk said, his voice thick and quivering as nausea took over.

"Relax, Hunk," Lance said over his shoulder. "I'm just getting a feel for the stick. It's not like I did _this_." The Cuban boy then yanked the controls around causing their vessel to jerk downward. "Or _this_." Another yank of the controls and the vessel jerked to the side, shaking everyone inside.

Lyra gave a look of sympathy towards the larger boy in front of her. He truly looked like he was about to throw up any second. She began digging through her medical supplies, shifting bottles and bandages around her case. "I-I have something that can uh help you, Huuuunk!" Just as Lyra stood up, the vessel jolted sending her off balance and dropping her vial of medicine, squealing her teammates name as she fell to her hands and knees. "Oh no…" She stared at the shattered vial of medicine she was planning on giving Hunk. Quickly jumping back to her feet, she rushed over to her pack. "I-I-I-I think I have another one. Uh give-give me a moment." She quickly began searching through her supplies, pushing other bottles and vials around doing her best to find what she was looking for. She was beginning to get flustered. "I-I'm sorry, I can't find it. Gi-give me another minute."

"Lyra, you need to calm down," Pidge called out from where she was sitting. "Just breathe."

"Yeah, relax, beautiful," Lance chirped in. "Everything is under control.

Hunk groaned from his seat. "Unless you want to wipe beef stroganoff out of all the little nooks and crannies in this thing, you better knock it off, man!" he shouted in desperation.

Lyra had to agree with him on this one. The fact that Lance was turning this simulation into a game was not helping anyone.

Frantic beeping was coming from Pidge's corner of the ship. "We've picked up a distress beacon!" she shouted, turning around to look at her crewmates.

"All right, look alive, team," Lance said as he began to hit a couple buttons on his control panel above him. "Pidge, track coordinates."

"Copy."

The vessel jerked again, shaking a little.

"Knock it off, Lance! Please!" Hunk cried out, gripping his seat tightly and shutting his eyes.

"This one's on you, buddy," the pilot said, turning around in his seat to look at his teammate. "We've got a hydraulic stabilizer out."

Right as he said that, Hunk grabbed his monitor, preparing to fix the problem. As long as he held his lunch in.

Watching Lance actually act like a pilot instead of showboating around was a sight that Lyra never thought she'd see. Especially after the number of times she seen him act during training. She was starting to be impressed by the young man.

"Lyra, get your supplies ready so we're prepared for any injuries when we pick up the crew," Lance commanded.

Lyra's head jerked over towards the Cuban boy and took a moment to get her bearings before she started organizing the medical supplies. She just hoped that she'd be able to prevent anymore from breaking as the ship began to rumble again.

"Oh no…" came the soft groan from Hunk.

"Oh no. Fix now, puke later." Lance stated, glaring at the view in front of him.

"I lost contact. The shaking is interfering with our sensors," Pidge informed as more beeping started up.

"Come on, Hunk!" Lance said, looking back at his friend.

"It's not responding," Hunk said, before a moan came from him. He got out of his seat and crossed over to the other side of the ship where Pidge was, opening up a panel.

"Never mind, fellas - and lady," Lance said as a view of the moon appeared in the front window. "Thar she blows. Preparing for approach on visual."

"I don't think that's advisable with our current mechanical and gastrointestinal issues," Pidge said, making a face as she glanced over at Hunk, who held in his vomit.

"Agreed," he moaned.

"Lance, ju-just give me a moment to find something for Hunk. Then we can uh find-find a place to la-land." The honey-haired woman could feel her heart racing. She constantly thought this ever since she joined the Garrison, but never in a million years did she think she'd wind up in a situation like this. She was waiting for the day when she wouldn't have to find herself in one again.

"Stop worrying," Lance assured, despite the glare from Pidge and the pleading look from Lyra. "This baby can take it, can't you, champ?" Reaching in front of him and patted the dashboard, a fond smile on his face. In response the vessel shook again, causing a look of alarm to appear on the pilot's face. "See? She was nodding. She was nodding. Pidge, hail down to them and let them know their ride is here." He grabbed the controls once more, trying to get the vessel to stop shaking. He drew his attention to the team's medic as Pidge began to hail the other ship. "Lyra, how are the medical supplies coming along?"

"Everything seems to be in order," she said, holding up a vial in her hand to exam it. Just then the vessel shook again, harder this time, and caused Lyra to practically jump in her seat. This only resulted in the vial falling out of her hand and smashing to the floor. "Oh no…"

"Not another 'oh no'!" Lance shouted. "We can't afford to lose more medicine. I know you've got this, beautiful."

Lyra gave a look of exasperation towards the back of Lance's head. How did she end up on a team with him as the pilot again?

"Attention, lunar vessel-" Pidge was interrupted as she screamed from losing her balance as the ship shook again. She slammed into the floor with a loud thud.

"What are you doing? Buckle your belt. And, Hunk, stop that shaking!" Lance demanded, glaring at his teammates.

"I'm try- Oh no." And with that Hunk shoved his head into the panel and threw up.

Lyra quickly averted her gaze, her face falling at the sound of the boy being sick. This was not going well…

"Attention, lunar vessel," Pidge spoke up, speaking into the radio, "this is Galaxy Garrison Rescue Craft ONe Victor Six Three Tango. Coming in for landing and extraction, against crew recommendations." She said the last part in a mumble, side glaring at their pilot.

Lyra made a face, watching as Lance argued back against Pidge. The two of them never saw eye to eye, and the older teammate wondered if they ever would. She prayed that day would come soon. There was no way that their team would accomplish anything if they argued all the time. Their team already had been reprimanded a couple times during another team exercise that was smaller than their desert crash landing exercise. She lowered her head, sighing at the thought of it all. It was exhausting.

"Look out for that overhang!" Pidge shouted.

Immediately, Lyra's head shot up and let out a squeak, covering her mouth with her left hand. Through the window she could see a rock formation with a hole in the middle of it. And they were heading straight for it.

"No worries," Lance tried to reassure. He hadn't reassured anyone since the start, what was different now? "My first year in flight school, know what they called me? They called me "The Tailor" because of how I thread the needle." The boy had a goofy, cocky grin on his face as he looked back at his team.

The color in Lyra's face vanished and her heart fell to her stomach. Lance continued to fail at reassuring his team. There was no way he was going to make it through that hole in the rock!

"Uh L-L-L-Lance," Lyra stuttered, raising a hand slightly, "I-I don't that such a good-"

She was cut off by her own screaming as Lance maneuvered the vessel suddenly, causing her, Pidge, and Hunk to grab onto their seats desperately. She watched in horror as Lance made a nose dive straight for the overhang and she quickly closed her eyes, afraid to see how it would all end.

The sound of a crash did not lesson her anxiety on the matter.

"We lost a wing!" Hunk cried out.

And right after Hunk's announcement another crash sounded and the vessel went black. They had failed the simulation. Every team member slumped in their seats, knowing full well that once they stepped out of the vessel they would be reprimanded by Iverson.

"Nice work, Tailor," Pidge mumbled, glaring at Lance.

"Roll out, donkeys!" Iverson shouted as the door opened.

Slowly, the four teammates stepped out and lined up outside of the vessel and in front of all the other teams. Lyra's face was burning as she felt all eyes on them. She didn't like this. Trying her best, she focused her attention away from the onlookers and to their instructor. However, the look on Iverson's face only made her lower her head to stare at the ground just as her teammates were doing.

"Well let's see if we can't use this complete failure as a lesson for the rest of you students," Iverson shouted as he stared down at the four. "Can anyone point out the mistakes these four so called cadets made in the simulator?"

"The engineer puked in the main gearbox," a male student called out.

"Yes. As everyone knows," Iverson said, glancing at Hunk, "vomit is not an approved lubricant for engine systems. What else?"

"The medic dropped medicine needed for the rescue."

"The comm spec removed his safety harness."

The pilot crashed!"

Looking at it all, Lyra was starting to wish that they had actually prepared for the simulator. When Pidge and her had met up with Lance and Hunk at the commissary Lance right away said that they didn't need to prepare. "As long as you have me as your pilot, we're already prepared" was what he had said. The woman was starting to wish she had actually pushed to get them to strategize instead of have Pidge and Lance argue during lunch over whether to strategize or not.

"Correct," Iverson said, facing the other students. "And worst of all, the whole jump, they're arguing with each other." At this point he was now addressing the four teammates. "Heck, if you're going to be this bad individually, you'd better at least be able to work as a team! Galaxy Garrison exists to turn young cadets like you into the next generation of elite astroexplorers, but these kinds of mental mistakes are what cost the lives of the men on the Kerberos Mission."

Hearing that, Lyra's eyes shot open and her head snapped up to look at Iverson. She didn't know what she was feeling. Hurt? Anger? Disappointment? But one thing was for sure, she knew that-

"That's not true, sir!"

The honey-haired woman turned her head to stare at an angered Pidge. "Oh no…" she whispered. If Pidge started sassing off to Iverson then they'd be in even more trouble! Lyra wanted to shush her, but before she could Lance had beaten her to it.

"Sorry, sir," he said, covering Pidge's mouth. "I think he hit his head when he fell out of his chair. But point taken." The entire time Lance was creating his excuse, Pidge was shouting into his hand creating muffled noises and fighting to get out of his grip.

"I hope I don't need to remind you," Iverson said slowly as he walked up to Lance, "that the only reason you're here is that the best pilot your class had a discipline issue and flunked out. Don't follow in his footsteps"

Lyra glanced over at Iverson and Lance, eyes slightly wide when she heard that. Her brow furrowed as she thought those words over. There was only one person that she could think of that could have a discipline issue and flunk out and she had a feeling she was right as to who it was. She hadn't seen him in a while. Not since she met him a couple times through Shiro.

 _Which would explain why I haven't seen him since I got here…_ she thought.

She looked at Lance and saw the look on the Cuban boy's face. It was one that she had never seen on his face before. He always seemed happy and confident, but here he looked sad and worried. As much as he was annoying at times, Lyra didn't like seeing him like that. It worried her.

As Iverson called for the next team, the other four headed off to the locker rooms to change out of their flight gear. No one said a thing as they trudged their way to their destination. Nothing needed to be said after everything they went through and heard.

ooOOoo

A knock on her door broke Lyra out of her trance. After the simulation none of the teammates said a thing and just went to their dorms for the rest of the day. Since then Lyra had been sitting in her room, trying to distract herself from thoughts of what Adam had said to her, the simulation failure, and the mention of the Kerberos Mission. So much had happened today that all Lyra wanted to do was crawl into bed. But instead she had opted for reading. At least there she could try to focus on the story and not on her rampaging thoughts.

"Hello?" she called out, confused. She glanced over at her roommate, who was too busy on her phone, headphones in and ignoring anything and everything around her. There was no way she heard the knock. That was the good thing about her roommate. She didn't ask questions and pry into Lyra's life. The two made small talk here and there and just kept to themselves. She was glad for that.

"Lyra, it's me," Pidge's voice called out through the metal door.

"Oh," Lyra mumbled, standing up from her bed. Opening the door she was greeted by the young girl with a backpack strung over her shoulders.

"Are you ready?" Pidge asked, a glimmer of excitement shining in her eyes.

"Oh um...sorry, give me a moment. I got um a little distracted," Lyra stuttered, letting Pidge in.

Lyra walked to her closet, passing her roommate who gave a nod and wave to Pidge without even looking up from her phone. The woman grabbed her rucksack and a pair of tan booties. Passing her desk, she took her tablet and a notepad and pen, stuffing it into the rucksack. Slipping on her shoes, she paused, staring around the room thinking about what else she would need for this meetup.

They were meeting on the roof at night and from Lyra's memory of being out in the desert during the survival exercise she remembered it had been freezing cold. Heading back to the closet, opened the doors and looked inside. She spotted her brown leather jacket, grabbing it off the hanger only to freeze when she saw the article of clothing next to it.

Slowly, she reached out and took the dark brown jacket off its hanger. She stared at it, her heart clenching. It was Shiro's riding jacket. He had left it behind at her apartment the last time he had visited.

Lyra brought it close to her, hugging it to her for a moment. It still smelled like him. She stared at her jacket and then his jacket, going back and forth between the two. Thinking for a moment longer, she slipped her leather jacket over her white shirt and quickly folded Shiro's and stuffing it into her rucksack.

Taking a deep breath, she turned around from the closet. "Um sorry for making you wait," Lyra said, facing Pidge now.

"You're fine," Pidge said, nodding once. "Are you ready?"

"Yeah, let's go."

"You won't believe what I found," Pidge said as they exited the room. "I think it might be something that might link to what happened with the Kerberos Mission." They turned down a hall.

Lyra's heart skipped a beat. Were they getting closer to finding out what happened to their loved ones? She could only pray.

In minutes they had made their way up onto the roof, somehow without getting caught by any staff members. Lyra watched as Pidge headed towards the edge of the roof and began setting up her devices. Blinking, she saw as the device turned on with a beep and soon the screen lit up with different information popping up.

"What is this?" Lyra asked, kneeling down next to Pidge.

"It's something I built," Pidge began as she typed away at the keyboard.

The older female's eyes widened. "You built this? Incredible…" Her eyes shifted from one part of the computer to the next. It was so advanced, almost something that the Garrison would have. It was no wonder Pidge had straight As in all her communications classes.

"Thanks!" the young girl chirped. She leaned closer to the screen, typing once more.

"What exactly did you do with it?"

"I hacked into the Garrison system and searched for any frequencies, but what I found was something completely different," Pidge said, her voice matching the excitement that had been on her face since telling Lyra earlier in the day.

"What did you find?" Lyra inquired, leaning in as well.

Pidge dug into her bag, pulling out a second pair of headphones and plugging it into the computer. "Here." She handed them to Lyra. "Listen."

Putting them on, Lyra was immediately greeted with the strangest sound she ever heard. It was rapid talking. Almost a whisper. It was as if someone was speaking gibberish. It was something she had never heard before.

Screaming from Pidge broke her trance and Lyra practically jumped a foot in the air when she saw a new person next to her and Pidge. Lance and Hunk had appeared behind them, each with their own quizzical expressions. Hunk for some reason, was inching along on the ground towards them. Whether it was to be unseen or out of caution, Lyra wasn't sure.

"We were just um looking at the stars," Pidge covered for them, trying to give as much of an innocent look as she could muster.

"So like a date?" Lance stated, raising a brow as he looked from Pidge to Lyra.

Both girls' face turned red at the accusation.

"No it's not a date!" Pidge exclaimed as Lyra shook her head frantically.

Lance continued to raise his brow, but diverted his attention to the device in front of the girls. "Man, where'd you get this stuff?" he asked, his eyes narrowing. Hunk had finally crawled his way next to his friend. "It doesn't look like Garrison tech."

A confident smirk grew on the young girl's face. "I built it," Pidge responded.

"You built all of this?" Hunk asked, sneaking up towards the tech, a finger reaching out to touch a button.

Pidge smacked his hand away before he could do anything. "Stop it!" She turned back to Lance, the smirk returning to her face. "With this thing, I can scan all the way to the edge of the solar system."

"That right? All the way to Kerberos?" Lance asked, raising a brow as he eyed his teammate. Pidge whimpered and lowered her head. "You go ballistic every time the instructors bring it up. What's your deal?"

"Second warning, Hunk!" Pidge shouted as Hunk began touching the small satellite dish on the monitor. The large boy groaned and slunked away once more.

"Look, Pidge," Lance started up again, "if we're going to bond as a team, we can't have any secrets."

"Fine," Pidge relucted. "I was about to tell Lyra what this was so I'll explain it to all of you then." She took a small breath. "The world as you know it is about to change. The Kerberos Mission wasn't lost because of some malfunction or crew mistake."

Lyra let out a small gasp, her eyes growing wide. "...I knew it couldn't have been a mistake." She ignored the looks Hunk and Lance gave her and put her full attention to Pidge. She needed to hear more. She had to know what had happened to Shiro on that mission.

But that explanation took a very miniscule break as Pidge yelled at Hunk. "Stop touching my equipment!" Again the boy groaned and laid on his side. Pidge took a moment to gather her bearings. "So, I've been scanning the system and picking up alien radio chatter."

At that statement, Lyra's eyes grew wider. Aliens? Were there actually aliens? She never doubted it the possibility of other life out ther, but at the same time there was never full proof that there were any. "Are you serious?" she asked at the same time Hunk spoke up with "Whoa. What? Aliens?"

"Okay," Lance said skeptically. "So, you're insane. Got it."

"I'm serious. They keep repeating one word," Pidge continued, reaching over and grabbing a notepad that had a colorful drawing on it, "'Voltron.' And tonight, it's going crazier than I have ever heard it."

"You've been hearing this more than just now?" Lyra asked, her face falling. "Why didn't you mention this sooner?"

"How crazy?" Lance asked, the same skeptical look plastered on his face.

A split second after he asked that the Garrison alarms sounded, bringing the four student's attention away from their conversation.

Lyra looked around as she heard Iverson's voice on the PA stating that the alarm was not for a drill and stating that the school was on lockdown. What could be happening that would require a lockdown on the Garrison? In the years that Shiro had been a student and worked at the Garrison he never once told her about an incident that required a lockdown. If this was happening then what major event could be causin-

She gasped. Up in the sky she spotted a red and orange, burning ball of light. "Guys! Look!" she exclaimed, pointing up at the object.

"Is that a meteor?" Hunk questioned, also pointing up at the burning object. "A very, very big meteor?"

With wide eyes, Pidge quickly grabbed her binoculars, putting them up to her eyes. "It's a ship!" she reported only to have Lance take hold of the binoculars with her still holding on.

"Holy crow!" Lance exclaimed as he peered through them. "I can't believe what I'm seeing! That's not one of ours."

"No. It's one of theirs," Pidge stated, a little too calmly.

"On-one of theirs? So are the-the aliens actually here for whatever that um V-Voltron thing is?" Lyra stuttered, still in shock at what she was seeing. She watched as the ship moved closer and closer to the Earth, the light getting brighter as its distance shortened.

"So, wait," Hunk spoke up, his and everyone's gaze following the object. "There really are aliens out there?"

In a matter of seconds the ship crashed behind a large rock formation, miles away from the Garrison. Lyra quickly stood up on her feet, trying to see if she could get a better view of the ship. What was going on? And where did that ship come from? She watched as Garrison vehicles started up and left the compound, heading straight for the crashed ship.

"We've got to see that ship!" Pidge said excitedly, backpack already on her back. With that said, she took off running across the roof.

Lyra quickly followed soot, grabbing her bag on her way after her friend. Whatever that radio chatter was about it had to be in correlation with the crashed ship. And if what Pidge said about the Kerberos Mission, she was hoping these two things were linked to that as well.

 **Finally finished this chapter. I had this chapter planned out and just lacked the motivation to write it. Then the news from the SDCC Voltron panel came out and it gave me a few ideas. And then my best friend sent me a link to a leaked video of the first episode of season 7 and let me tell you that was a good first episode! It gave me so much inspiration and motivation to get this chapter done.**

 **I wanted to incorporate Adam in somehow and with some help from friends from tumblr I was able to figure out how. Due to his addition this chapter became WAY longer than what I originally thought it would be. But I'm honestly glad I included him. I thought it would be a nice little moment between him and Lyra.**

 **I'm excited to finally reach episode one and get started on the series. I am still going through each episode in my head and plotting out which ones I can skip over and which ones to include. I have ideas here and there of what I want to happen and it will take time.**

 **As I've stated in the previous chapter, I can't guarantee how often I'll update. Or when I'll discontinue the story. I don't want to do that, but with me now being an adult and working it's hard to keep up with this stuff. I don't plan on discontinuing any time soon, but when that moment comes I'll let you know. For now, just don't expect constant updates for the story. I have other stories I'm working on as well and life and work to worry about. I hope you all can understand.**

 **I'm so excited for season 7 to come out! It will probably give me some more inspiration to work on chapters.**

 **If you want to keep up with what's going on with the story whether updates or edits or what not feel free to check out my tumblr at** **thestarsremained** **. Feel free to send me any questions you might have to there or if you'd like to just talk about Voltron feel free to send me a message! You can also check out my Voltron incorrect quotes blog at** **vld-incorrect-quotes** **.**

 **I hope you all have a wonderful day/night! Let me know what you thought about the chapter and leave a review! I love any kind critiques, they always help and encourage my writing! Thank you!**


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